Italian Job Stunt Track at PKD

PKD is getting an Italian Job Stunt Track next year ive seen a picture of a poster at anmpkd.com confirming this. I personally think this is bad. After seing horrible reviews of the ones at PKI and PCW. This angers me sure its another launch coaster but its slow. Paramount Parks were better before 2000 since then the only good things ive seen are the Borg Assimilator and Son of Beast. I hope 2007 will be a good year for the Paramount Parks. I hope in 2007 PKD gets a B&M which they are lacking. PKD is one of the best Paramount Parks in the chain. And the best things they have are Volcano and Hypersonic(Hypersonic has been sucking since Top Thrill Dragster opened)

What do you guys think?

Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

It's retarded. The park is attempting to become more themed, adding rides that are based on films, but they are even messing that up. Picking little-known, moderately successful properties like "School of Rock" and "The Italian Job" for rides, while saddling other, more popular titles (like Tomb Raider and Men In Black) with lackluster carnival attractions.

PKD needs to seriously consider the overall direction of their marketing campaigns. Indiana Jones, MTV, Friday the 13th, and Star Trek are just a few examples of big time properties under either the Paramount name or the Viacom Umbrella...why not use these massive, pop-culture entities as a way to theme your attractions and drive traffic to your parks?

I agree with you regarding "Star Trek," but the Enterprise is grounded now--Paramount really blew that opportunity. But Indiana Jones belongs to George Lucas, and Disney has the rights to that franchise.

I think Paromounts parks should build a borg at each park like DropZone and other rides. I think this is a good step with launch coasters cause those rides are now popular like TTD and Kingda Ka cause they are launch coasters that were good investments for Six Flags and Ceadar Point. I love what PKD is doing. Please make a borg assimilator at PKD though!

Don't forget that the Italian Job sequel is scheduled to arrive next summer. Paramount has admittedly picked some strange movies to theme upon, many of the rides are based on a movie without anyone even realizing it. Has anyone seen Drop Zone or Faceoff??

The Italian Job reviews haven't been that bad. I tend to dismiss a significant percentage of negative reviews because many of them come from disgruntled thrill seekers waiting for the next big coaster, and for whom which Italian Job wasn't big or fast enough for. If people see the ride for what it is, than it's pretty good.

This has been the drill for the last 5 years or so. PKD pretty much always gets a clone of a PKI attraction...the problem lies in that they never quite do it the same as the original.

Perhaps PKD needs to be invested in a little more. With Busch Gardens Williamsburg no more than an hour or two away, clone attractions usually just don't stand up to things like DarKastle. That's not to say that PKD is a bad park, but at this point, BGW is head and shoulders above. I have news for you though, a giant coaster isn't the solution to the issue. It may be part of the solution, but many visitors that I have talked to say that PKD lacks a bit of charm and personality. Perhaps some smaller and more subtle improvements are in order as well.

Face/Off and Drop Zone make reasonable sense as movies to theme rides to, but the problem is that Paramount didn't do any theming beyond just the name.

Regarding PKD's general direction, they need to decide if they're going to be a high-thrill, coaster-centric park like Cedar Point or if they are going to be more family-friendly with lots of theming. Right now it's kind of a poor-man's Cedar Point, with a bunch of decent thrill rides but nothing that really sticks out.

I think they could make a B&M floorless coaster at any of the Paramount parks and theme it to War of the Worlds and they could have those tripod thingys look walking around it and they would like sound their horn alot. I think thats an awesome idea the Italian Job Stunt Track at PKD bad but hey there getting another coaster at least.

Paramount must not realize what coasters people wait in line for. Giga and strata coasters duh. TTD and MF always have at least a 2-3 hour wait time. I waited in line at PKI for only 15 minutes to ride Italian Job. The ride is 4 kids I'm telling you. Wake up Paramount!

Yeah your right If they tore down Hypersonic they could build a Strata Coaster with no guilt. But I doubt it will EVER happen they think they have enough thrill rides but they dont. I think this is their timeline 2006:Italian Job Stunt Track2007:Boomerang Bay or Nick Central2008: The thing they didnt get last year2009: Delirium2010: PKD decides that delirium will alst thrill seekers another 5 years so they expand the waterpark again.

LOL, I hope your wrong Chase. But I do hope they sell XLC and install a Strata in its place. Believe me, people are not going 2 like Italian Job that much. One time was enough for me at PKI. The line wasnt even long. 15-20 minutes for a brand new ride isn't a good sign but Paramount is still stupid enough to produce another. Wouldn't it be so sweet to see a strata go over the top of the eiffel tower...

doubt a strata or a giga will ever show up in Virginia. The tallest we have is Apollo's Chariot and I doubt BGW will ever add a ride that made another look bad like Cedar Point does. The fastest we have is 80mph Virginia only has 16 coasters Ohio has 40 Id rather live in Ohio but I dont becasue im 13. Itd be nice to have a strata coaster in Virginia were lucky enough to get a hyper.

that person that said please put in borg at at PKD when stealth was built they were actually going to clone it and put in at 2 other paramount parks so ur wish could of came true but Paramount only wanted one so vekoma went to sixflags.

PKD website now has the Italian Job on the front page after they advertise Tomb Raider. The people that work for Paramount are the dumbest in the industry. I guess they don't realize just how bad the PKI version is!

Yes, a giga or strata would be very nice in PKD but how about some higly-themed new concept rides? What ever happened to that idea of "The Addams Family" Haunted House walk-thru/dive coaster?! It combines chills AND thrills! What could be better?

Paramount just doesn't realize what type of coasters people are willing to wait for year after year. Millennium Force is 5 years old now and still has a 2 hour wait time on an average day. PKD needs a strata or giga, until then, I can't blame the tourists for passing up on PKD and heading straight for BGW. I would love to meet whoever runs PKD lol....

Let's just say Cedar Point isn't tearing it up in attendance. Yes, they have long lines, but that doesn't mean they're better. PKI has now beat Cedar Point two years in a row in attendance, and is on pace to beat them a third year. Cedar Point perhaps should look at what Paramount is doing, and consider adding more family and highly themed attractions, or Cedar Point will continue to go 3-5 years between additions because they won't have enough money to afford new attractions.

Paramount has shown that its model is more successful than what Cedar Point has done over the past 5 years, so perhaps PKD knows what it's doing.

LOL, Paramount probably does have a high attendance only cuz you can get tickets for such cheap prices. I'm sure CP brings alot more $ over the year than any Paramount park because people don't mind paying the big bux to get in to CP but PKI and PKD and so on only charges like $25 -$30 to get in. Talk about a joke. Paramount seems so desperate to get more people into their parks. I, myself will never visit PKI ever again as it nothing but trash except for The Beast. Cedar Point is like Heaven and PKI is like Hell.

PKI is worth about $10 to get in the park and Cedar Point is worth the $50 admission price. No PKI coaster has a line at all and all of CP's are over an hour long it seems. That right there tells you something. Also helps that CP is right on the water. The place is beautiful and PKI just seems like a carnival. Your blind if you don't agree....

Another major difference between PKI and CP is that more tourists visit CP and most of PKI guests are locals who buy a cheap season pass every year. You call that a better attendance? lol. think about it, PKI is in a big city, CP is not.

Why would Cedar Point build highly themed rides? What could they theme them on but I cant see them putting in anything like Italian Job Stunt Track or Tomb Raider that just isnt there style and Cedar Point has trees there not all concrete whoever said that dont be dissing Cedar Point because its higher ranked than PKI wait a second were getting off topic PKD sucks for putting Italian Job Stunt Track.

Wow, I completely agree with Jeff - Italian Job isn't even worth waiting 5 minutes for. Unfortunately I waited about 30 minutes to ride it last week. I will never be on that ride again. But any way, Paramount parks are more for little kids it seems. o well. you wont catch me at PKI ever again...

You know, I always thought parks should be proud when they keep wait times down on rides... Its the most complained about circumstance at Guest Exit Surveys. I guess all of them have been wrong for years, and all we needed was the expertise of "the ride is good because it has a long line" theorum.

Wow, you guys can't stay on topic, can you? The title of this article was 'Italian Stunt Job Track at PKD.' This doesn't mean b**** about the other Paramount parks or talk about how great Ceadar Point is. Stay on topic, and stay in the park. ISJT at PKD is a very stupid idea and I believe that it will be removed with in 5 years with how back the reviews for the other ones have been. Where PKD stands now is to start advertising more across the state and add more coasters. They have so many in the park right now that in order for them to go in the family themed direction, they would have to remove a couple coasters. The only coaster that I could see them removing would be the Shockwave because it is the slowest running coaster as well as the most painful. They could easily make PKD the biggest park in Virginia with a giga or a strata coaster, if they can ever get the funds together. If they put one in, they would become such a big park that they could recoup everything that they invested into building it. Then if they really wanted, they could re-expand the water park.I also agree that they could sell off the Hypersonic or at least make it a h*** of a lot smoother. I had a headache for 2 days after riding it.

Everyone might as well live with the fact that Paramount is currently not catering to big thrillseekers that much. Italian Job is coming to PKD, and the kids will like it. Building a giga or strata coaster just isn't in the cards at this time. Don't get me wrong, I wish just as much as the next guy for a big new coaster. PKI hasn't built a big coaster since 2000's Son of Beast. However, I also understand why they would take the family/themed approach....more potential income, more potential attendance...etc. It's good for business.

For those awaiting IJST at Kings Dominion next year, here's what you will get...

The Good-A surprisingly fun launch up a twisting helix..don't be fooled by the launch speed. The finale through the dark tunnel isn't bad. You can't see where you are going, and this is where the cars are supposed to "skid." The theming is real. No manmade set pieces here, just real life props.

The Bad- The ride is too short. The track is not long at all, and the only thing that makes it a 2 minute ride is the stop in the middle while the helicopter shoots at you. The ride's capacity isn't that great either. 12 people per train and 2 trains doesn't move people very fast, so be ready to wait in line a while. Also beware of the blithering idiots that like to break things...like the speakers inside the cars. The ride is meant to be ridden with the sound intact, but more times than not the speakers were either kicked in or not working properly.

As I've said before, the kids will love it, and so will the average park goer. People looking for a huge thrill will be disappointed, because this ride isn't built for that.

[veering slightly but still on topic...]So basically, we all agree that IJST will most likely be a useful addition to the park. But does anyone have any info about logistics?

Any speculation about where entrances/exits will be? Which direction will the overall presentation "face"? I'm guessing it'll be a whole themed area where you'll be able to hang around and watch the ride whether or not you go on it, which won't be bad. Some nice benches and flower beds to sit and munch a funnel cake by... It would also be nice if it were accessable from all three directions (Anaconda side, dodgem side, Drop Zone side) That would help out traffic flow, I think.

I just hope they manage to make it blend in visually. The area where the Hypersonic is just looks like a rollercoaster yard sale.

(And with regard to the fantasy purchase of Superman from SFA: With our luck, they'd probably pick up Mind Eraser instead. But then they'd take out the lift and first drop and convert it into a 50 MPH launching coaster.)